you holding yourselves far aloof from wrong, from corruption, from the tempting of others to vice;

"That you will exercise your art solely for the cure of your patients, and will give no drug, perform no operation, for a criminal purpose, even if solicited; far less suggest it;

"That whatsoever you shall see or hear of the lives of men which is not fitting to be spoken, you will keep inviolably secret.

"These things do you swear? Let each man bow the head in sign of acquiescence.

"And now, if you shall be true to this your oath, may prosperity and good repute be ever yours; the opposite, if you shall prove yourselves forsworn."

Other professions call for no such formal asseveration of intentions. But I charge the youth of America, in the name of those who have gone before, in the name of all those who have contributed to that wealth of knowledge, that store of custom and tradition, that accumulation of spiritual gifts, which are so freely theirs, in the name of all those who have made their opportunity greater than that which they themselves enjoyed, I charge them to be men, good men, strong men, men ready to aid the suffering, to succor the weak, and to uplift the faint-hearted, men devoted to your profession, jealous of its integrity, faithful to its trusts and anxious for its advancement, men capable of leadership in this new century, and worthy of American citizenship, the finest flower of advancing civilization.

CHAPTER V

THE CALL TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICE 1

HE choice of a profession marks a crisis in a young man's life. It is the end of a period of irrespon

THE

sible living, of acquisition without purpose, and of expenditure without reward. It is the beginning of a period of self-direction and self-control, of struggle for mastery, of devotion to duty and service to others.

The selection of a calling. No wonder that the young man when I say "young man" I mean also the young woman with professional aspirations - approaches this crisis with strangely conflicting emotions. He is uncertain of himself. He has no means of knowing whether he is physically fit and temperamentally adapted to meet the strains of professional life. Nothing in his personal experience enables him to judge of his ability to excel in a particular professional career; and he has only the most superficial views of the duties and obligations of any kind of professional service. But the necessity of making a living drives him on. He is attracted by the prizes that reward the successful practitioner and he longs to do something that will count in the estimation of his fellows. His youthful optimism buoys him up and he dreams of the good he may do. The choice is made despite the doubts which arise and which occasionally continue to harass until he finds himself, years afterward, in and through his professional work.

1 A revised reprint from the COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY, December, 1908.

Since many of my readers have either chosen a professional career or are in the way to do so, I shall discuss some aspects of professional service. I purposely limit the scope of this survey, because some things are obvious to all who have eyes to see what is going on about them, and because some things may safely be neglected in addressing an American audience. Therefore, I shall say nothing of the relative importance of the professions. It is obvious that any profession has its advantages and disadvantages — for some who contemplate its exactions; and that all are in need of the uplift that comes through strong and capable men. We may safely neglect, too, the pecuniary rewards of professional service, for who is not aware that the laborer is worthy of his hire and that in every profession the assiduous devotee is assured of a decent living? There is opportunity, abundant opportunity, in every field, and no one need turn aside from any preferred course for fear that it will not yield the necessaries of life or give free scope to honest effort.

Professional service. I use the term profession in a liberal sense, as any vocation in which specialized knowledge is rationally, ethically, and skillfully applied in practical affairs. In this sense we recognize professions of engineering, teaching, agriculture, architecture, banking, military affairs, and the like, as well as the traditional professions of theology, law, and medicine. With increasing knowledge, higher ethical standards, and more rational practice we shall some day have professions of merchandising, journalism, housekeeping, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry - possibly even a profession of politics. Some occupations are debarred from

the professional class because of lack of scientific attainments, others by want of an ethical code, and a few by reason of insufficient technical skill. Conversely, any profession may be debased by practitioners who profess what they do not know, or cannot do, or who fail to recognize the moral obligations of their position. Professional service implies the possession of knowledge and power restricted to the few, but denied to the many. It implies leadership and bespeaks leaders who are worthy of the trust that the many should place in them.

The function of the university. The relation of the university to the professions is clearly apparent. The function of such an institution as this, indeed its sole function, is the training of leaders. First, in its quest for new knowledge in every field and in its provision for giving instruction in what is known, the university discharges its foremost duty to the professions that it represents; second, by formal teaching and through the influence of its social life the university promotes those ideals of social conduct which obtain between man and man; finally, in its professional schools, the university seeks to organize knowledge for professional ends and to give training in acceptable methods of procedure.

The obligations of service. The man who chooses a profession deliberately purposes to become a leader of men. He takes advantage of opportunities for study and training which few can enjoy. He equips himself for work in which he has few equals and may have no superior. He professes to be able to do what the many wish to have done but cannot do for themselves, and he invites the confidence and support of those who lack his

ability. The professional man, therefore, voluntarily assumes obligations which can be adequately met only

by the most conscientious preparation maintained

throughout a lifetime of devoted service.

The value of a liberal education. We must distinguish between the preparation necessary to enter upon a professional career and the equipment essential to the highest success in a particular profession. Time was when most of what was needed could be acquired in professional practice. The apprentice system did enable the beginner to assimilate the accumulated experience of his masters and to acquaint himself with the ethical standards of his colleagues. When knowledge was limited, experience counted for much, and the graduated steps in the advancement of the novice gave him that understanding of human nature without which no one may aspire to be a leader of men. To-day there is much to learn before professional work can be begun. Every decade sees scholastic requirements advanced and insisted upon. The maximum of to-day is the minimum of to-morrow, just because we are adding daily to the knowledge that honest professional men must use in their practice. The only question of an academic nature that can be raised is where to draw the line between what is essentially preparatory and what can safely be left to later acquisition. There is no limit to what the professional man needs short of the furthermost bounds of scientific knowledge applicable to his professional work. Indeed, he must go further than merely professional needs. He who would be a leader of men in any profession must see his work in its relation to the work of other men, see it as a part